This month, the theme was that the chef returned to his Polish roots and made a tasting menu inspired by Polish cuisine.

For the amuse-bouche, I was given a fried pastry topped with salmon and crème fraîche. This tasted like a more premium and umami bagel and lox. It was richer and heavier because the base was fried, but the crème fraîche was much lighter than cream cheese, so overall, it actually maintained the vague identity of a bagel and lox fairly well.

For my beverage, I browsed through their non-alcoholic beverage menu of three drinks and picked out the Garden Mule, made with cucumber and mint atop a Fever-Tree sparkling lime and yuzu base.

I was a little bit disappointed at how simple the flavor profile of the drink was last time, so I considered just sticking with water and not getting a drink for future visits. However, because of how limited the non-alcoholic beverage menu is, I figured I would at least give each one a try once, and then on my fourth dinner with them, I would only get a drink when a new one was added to the menu.

Compared to the one I picked last month, the Garden Mule fit my preference a lot better. I like the flavor of yuzu in general, but the addition of cucumber and mint made it fairly unique. Interestingly, as part of this drink, the cucumber didn’t really taste like what you’d expect from the vegetable, but rather, it just added an overall crisp and refreshing lift to the overall drink.

The first course was hot borscht with beet pierogi, creamy egg yolk, cheese and onion, pickled pearl onion, and spicy beet oil.

I think dishes that focus on vegetables and package them in a nice and gourmet way are underrated and too uncommon. As I have consumed increasing numbers of tasting menus, I begun to notice that, although seafood is still my favorite kind of food, a rapidly-approaching second is when a chef takes a vegetable and extracts the core essence of the flavor while getting rid of any diluted or bitter aspects of the taste.

This dish did that perfectly with beets. The only way I can come up with to describe this dish is that it was “extremely beets.” It was complemented very well by the doughy portion of the pierogi.

The next course was scallop carbonara with seared scallop, spaghetti squash, guanciale, egg yolk pearls, and croutons.

This scallop dish was interesting because I couldn’t really tell whether I thought it was normal and straightforward, or unique and different.

The scallop itself was a very no-frills standard scallop cooked to perfection with a fantastic sear on the outside and tender enough on the inside to have just enough resistance to be pulled apart with a fork and spoon with a little bit of effort. My initial impression of the sauce and pasta was that this was similar to just a regular scallop carbonara, but the more I had it, the more I noticed random things that set it apart from a regular carbonara. I’m somehow even undecided whether I think the sauce leaned more towards thick and creamy, or light and refreshing.

Regardless, I liked the dish. I think this balance of “regular carbonara” vs. “special carbonara” might have actually been intended, i.e., the chef might have purposely walked the line between the two so that the dish feels both familiar and novel at the same time.

Course number three was sweetbread bourguignon with crispy sweetbread, parsnip tagliatelle, porcini mushrooms, crème fraîche, toasted cashew, and bourguignon sauce.

I literally don’t even know where to start describing this one. This wasn’t a dish where I took a bite and thought it was delicious in a traditional sense, but it was so intriguing that I kept wanting more and more, and I would say that I ultimately ended up liking it. The overall flavor profile is not something I have ever even remotely had before in my entire life.

After finishing the dish, I am pretty sure I just stared into the void for a few minutes trying to process what I had just eaten. When the bartender took away my plate, he asked what I thought of the dish; I had not gotten anywhere close to figuring out what my thoughts were yet, so I stammered for a bit as if I had sudden onset speech fluency disorder, then let him know that I liked it, but was very confused about it.

Next was the foie gras course: seared foie gras with a gooseberry crispy phyllo tart atop duck jus.

This was interesting because of how the foie gras was served on the side, completely separately from the gooseberry tart, rather than being combined with or integrated into the tart somehow. Realistically, this is fine; the foie gras was delicious on its own, and the gooseberry tart was delicious on its own. However, the point of this dish is obviously to combine the two.

Eventually, the process I landed on was to cut small pieces of foie gras off the large portion, place a small piece on top of one of the gooseberries, and eat a bite of the tart so that everything entered my mouth at once. This made it so the fruitiness of the tart cut through and balanced the richness of the foie gras very well.

The fifth course was binchōtan-grilled barramundi served alongside grilled calamari and Polish kluski in marjoram pickle sauce and jasmine foam.

This was my favorite dish of the dinner (which probably isn’t surprising, considering that it was the seafood dish). The barramundi was nice and flaky. I couldn’t really taste the binchōtan flavor in the fish, but it was grilled very well. I also liked the jasmine foam—it added a very subtle floral note to the fish, without overpowering it with fragrance like some edible flowers do.

However, my favorite part of this dish was the calamari. I am fairly certain this is the best calamari I have ever had in my entire life. Not only was it just incredibly delicious, but the texture had a perfect balance of soft, chewy, and bouncy. I could eat an entire meal of just this calamari and be happy.

The kluski was the perfect component in the trio to round out the dish. It also had a well-balanced soft, chewy, and bouncy texture to it, but one you’d expect from dough instead of squid.

The next course in the signature tasting menu would have been the oxtail croque-monsieur, which I ate last month. As a reminder, it is made from braised oxtail and bone marrow, and is topped with shallot and parsley. However, if you remember from last month’s blog post, although I thought the croque-monsieur was good, it got a bit cloying for me at the end of the dish. So, for this dinner, I opted for their seven-course tasting menu with a foie gras add-on (functionally bringing it up to a custom eight-course tasting menu), rather than their signature nine-course tasting menu. Thus, I skipped the croque-monsieur this time around.

For my actual sixth course, I was served sweet and sour pork secreto and a quince and hibiscus Tatin with quince chips, crispy pork skin, and pork jus.

I thought this was fine. Every dish up until this point was basically a slam dunk when it came to tasting great, meeting my personal taste preferences, introducing me to a new flavor profile, or a combination of such, so maybe this pork secreto seemed underwhelming compared to that.

To be clear, this was not bad at all, and I still thought it was good. I would say that this served the role well of a solid, straightforward meat dish that is high in protein and doesn’t overdo it with fat. However, for me, I’d say this was probably the least memorable dish this month.

And now, for some great news… I can get bread with my tasting menu.

For a little bit of context: Sometimes, tasting menus end up giving small portion sizes because they have to price the meal somewhere reasonable, but they also need to account for the high cost of ingredients, labor, rent, and other expenses to run the restaurant sustainably. There is a balance at some point, where in order to make the tasting menu affordable to more people, they have to reduce the portion sizes and use fewer expensive ingredients.

In scenarios where tasting menus end up on the smaller end, I always recommend for restaurants to offer some kind of carbohydrate—such as bread or rice—to help bridge the gap and increase the chances of diners leaving full. I recently complimented L’Atelier by Joël Robuchon on their bread basket; I always leave their restaurant full after their tasting menu.

I brought this up with my bartender during this meal, specifically within the context of how I would appreciate some bread so I could use it to soak up leftover liquids from courses. For example, using bread to finish the liquid fat from the foie gras and the marjoram pickle sauce from the fish would’ve been great. When I mentioned this, he said that he would go ask the chef if he could get some bread made for me.

This baguette came out during the pork secreto course, so I was able to use it to finish the pork jus. The bread was absolutely perfect for these purposes—it had a very mild and plain flavor, so it tasted like it was literally custom-made to be able to go along with any dish and not alter its flavor profile, and then be used as a tool to finish the sauces while not detracting or diluting any of the sauce’s flavor.

Now that I know that the chef can just make me a miniature baguette, I am definitely going to ask for this at the beginning of my meals for future monthly tasting menus. Even though this particular bread came out somewhat late, I still ended up finishing about two-thirds of it by the end of my meal. I am very glad that I brought this up, and I am also glad that this basically guarantees that I will leave every Partage visit very full.

As a side note, the bartender explained that they usually don’t include bread as a baseline default for tasting menus because a lot of people actually find just the regular courses to be quite filling (and that’s also why they even offer a smaller five-course tasting menu too). I can eat a substantial amount in one sitting, and I’m also pretty sure that I have a pretty stretchy stomach, so this bread definitely serves a very positive role for me for my dinners.

The final course before dessert was the cheese course: Fourme d’Ambert with endive, walnut ice cream, fresh Granny Smith apple, and caramelized walnuts.

When the bartender brought this dish out for me, he explained that this is a type of blue cheese. That made me slightly concerned, because I’m usually not that big of a fan of cheese, and I think that most cheeses smell and taste like mold and/or vomit, and I think that blue cheese in particular is extra bad. With that being said, the cheese course from last month was unexpectedly incredible, so I had high hopes that this would also be unexpectedly great.

If I was not told the name of this cheese and it was not disclosed that it was a type of blue cheese, I would have never known. There was absolutely no funk in this cheese at all. It tasted as if they had somehow attacked this cheese at a molecular level and zapped away every single bad-smelling and bad-tasting molecule. Instead, it was deeply creamy, earthy, and savory, with only a tiny bit of tang that was mostly neutralized and balanced out by the apple and walnuts.

If all cheeses in the world were as high-quality as the cheeses served at Partage, I would never complain about cheese ever again.

Finally, for dessert, I was served Snickers d’automne with chocolate mousse and soufflé, peanut and chestnut crispy, and huckleberry gel.

Does this look familiar? It should if you read last month’s blog post about Partage. One thing that I was incredibly baffled by last month was how this was a pear dessert; I shared what the course list claimed it was, but ultimately just said that this was a gourmet s’more. Well, I solved the mystery.

Last month’s dessert was this same Snickers d’automne, minus the huckleberry gel. That’s because, apparently, they switch the dessert course over to the next cycle before they rotate out the rest of the menu, so because I went on the final day of September, I ended up receiving October’s dessert instead. As you can see, they since then added a fruity element with the huckleberry; I liked this version better. I also now know that I should give my reservation bookings a few days’ worth of leeway before the end of the month so I can make sure I show up while that month’s dessert is still in service.

This is the chocolate soufflé; they added a much more generous portion of nuts atop it this time, which I liked.

Along with my check, I was given two petits fours to conclude my meal.

Seven-course tasting menu	$ 160.00
Foie gras add-on	$  33.00
Garden Mule	$  12.00
Sales tax (8.375%)	$  17.17
Gratuity	$  40.00
Total	$ 262.17

The table to the right shows how much I paid.

Since last month, they raised the price on the tasting menus by a little bit. I’m not sure if this is an overall price increase, or if it is just because they used more expensive ingredients this time and needed to make a small adjustment. For comparison, the signature nine-course tasting menu was US$198.00, while it was listed at US$210.00 this month.

I believe I said last month that this seemed a little bit pricey considering the fact that it was not on the Las Vegas Strip and they don’t have the extra premium rent rates and overhead expenses involved in operating on the Strip. With that being said, I’m not sure if I just got completely wooed by the bread and how satisfyingly full I got this time, but after this dinner, I walked away from it thinking that the price wasn’t actually that high for what you get.

I didn’t take any photographs of the interior like I usually do at restaurants because I already shared a bunch of pictures last month. Like always, because I am a local and want to have as minimal of an impact on restaurant operations as possible, I booked my reservation for the first available time slot on a weekday so that I am not showing up when it’s congested and so I am not taking away a dining opportunity from a weekend tourist. So, like usual, it was empty when I arrived (though more people trickled in during my two-hour meal), and the restaurant looked the same as it did last month.

And finally, one last note about the timing of these Partage blog posts. For both tasting menus, I published the blog post during the subsequent month—during early October for my late September meal, and today on November 1 for my late October meal. The reason I do this is because part of the magic of Partage is that it’s always a surprise what you get. I do get a course list with the name of all the dishes and all the key ingredients that were used, but I receive that after my meal, not before or during it. Partage does end up doing some amount of marketing on social media, so if you’re going out of your way to look for it, then you’ll see previews of some of the dishes. However, the spirit of the tasting menu is that you are not supposed to know what’s coming. Thus, in order to not disrupt their system, I decided to only publish the blog post after the corresponding month is over.

I’ll see you again in my early December blog post, once I get a chance to try Partage’s November 2026 tasting menu.

When I looked into it more closely about a year or so ago, I saw that they were offering Chef Ming’s Signature Tasting Menu containing six courses for US$227.88. However, when I looked at online reviews of the tasting menu, the general feedback was that the amount of food was too little. I still wanted to try it at some point, but because I don’t go to tasting menus daily, I deprioritized Wing Lei behind some other restaurants that I wanted to try out first.

Upon recently revisiting Wing Lei’s website, I noticed that it seemed like they changed head chefs. Instead of Chef Ming, his signature tasting menu was replaced by Chef Tam’s Signature Tasting Menu. The meal was increased from six to seven courses (or nine courses if you count each appetizer separately), and the price was lowered to US$198.88. I figured that they had also seen the online feedback about insufficient portion sizes and decided to not only serve more food, but also lower the price to entice more people to try it out. Well, it worked on me, because I booked a reservation for it.

The Wynn is the one and only property on the Las Vegas Strip that always hassles me when I try to drive in; specifically, they stop me and tell me to open the tonneau cover on my pickup truck bed so an employee can do a visual inspection. The key word here is “visual”—they just look, without ever giving any proper attention to opaque containers to assess their risk. This is extra inconvenient for me because I have a 2018 model that has fully manual locks on the bed and no engine start/stop button. This means that I have to remove my key by turning off my engine, walk around to my truck bed, use the key to unlock the latch, open it for an inspection, re-lock it, go back into my truck, and restart my engine to continue driving.

Just like a lot of non-law-enforcement security is, I consider this to be theatrics rather than genuine security, considering that anyone with truly malicious intentions would, you know… just not stop when the security guy asks you to stop, or put their dangerous items under a pile of other stuff. And yes, I am aware that it has some level of deterrent effect, but it comes at a cost. Because of these annoying past experiences with the Wynn, I usually avoid going to restaurants there, even though I will transparently and honestly say that I think the Wynn and Encore are the best hotels on the Las Vegas Strip and I highly recommend them if you want a luxurious stay.

I decided that trying the tasting menu at Wing Lei was a rare compelling-enough reason to do business with the Wynn. In order to avoid the weekend crowds, I booked my reservation for Monday, right when they opened at 5:30 PM. Instead of going through the hassle of using Wynn’s parking garage, I parked across the street for free at Fashion Show mall and took the pedestrian skybridge over Las Vegas Boulevard (yes, I hate dealing with fake “security” that much, primarily as a matter of principle… but also because I need to get my steps in somehow). Upon my arrival, I was taken deep into the restaurant and was seated at a small table with sweeping views of the rest of the dining area and the garden.

While I was browsing through the dinner and beverage menus, I was given a very small cup of tea to sip on while I made my decisions.

I was also given a small shrimp as an amuse-bouche.

I notified my waitress that I was interested in trying the tasting menu. Shortly thereafter, a plate containing my appetizer course came out.

The first was 軟炸鵝肝蝦多士, which is fried shrimp toast with foie gras and coriander. There was a lot going on in this dish, and as you can see, it also had some stuff that was not included in the ingredient list, such as salmon roe. Overall, it was quite flavorful, and although I couldn’t really distinguish and fully grasp each separate component of the dish, I still liked it as a whole.

The second appetizer was 黑毛豬蜜汁叉燒, which is char siu Ibérico pork belly with cherry blossom honey.

I think this is probably the most tender and flavorful char siu I’ve ever had in my life. I think this was also the most well-marbled piece of pork I’ve ever eaten, even though it visually looks like the fat cap is distinctly on the side of the meat. This took “melt in your mouth” to a completely new level. I feel like I could eat this for dinner for several days straight and still not get sick of it.

And finally, the third appetizer was 黑蒜冬筍帶子餃, which is a scallop, bamboo shoot, and black garlic dumpling.

There was also a lot going on in this dish as well, but not quite in such a positive way as the fried shrimp toast with foie gras. There was nothing wrong about this, but I think it was probably the most underwhelming out of the entire dinner. I think one possibility for this is that, after having such clean and bright flavors in all the previous dishes, this dumpling caught me off guard because of how deeply it was fried.

For my drink, I ordered a Pear Blossom off their non-alcoholic specialty mocktail menu; it was made with pear purée and Chinese five-spice in a base of Lyre’s apéritif rosso.

This kind of drink is exactly what I’m looking for when I order a specialty beverage. Pear is already a fairly uncommon flavor profile to see in mocktails, but this elevated the pear to something deeper and richer. On top of that, the fact that they used pear purée meant that there was a very subtle grittiness to the drink that even added a fun textural element as well.

The next course was 青檸拆魚羹, which is classic Shunde-style fish soup with lime zest.

This soup was amazing and made me feel warm and cozy. It also evoked a sense of home and nostalgia, which is funny, considering that I am not Chinese and my mom never made soup that tasted even remotely this good when I was still a kid living with my parents.

I think a lot of people would say that this needed more salt, but I liked it the way it was served. I think adding salt would definitely bring out more of the umami fish flavor, but I think there is a lot of charm in a fairly plain soup that is carried entirely by the high quality of the ingredients.

Next up was 北京鴨, which is Imperial Peking duck.

This is the dish I had the highest expectations for, and the dish that let me down the most. The portion size of the duck was way too small. The ratio of duck to vegetables was way too low, and the flavor of the vegetables overwhelmed the duck too much. I’m not sure why they were being so stingy with the duck here, but I think they should’ve doubled the amount of duck per roll at minimum for this to make sense.

For the fourth course, I was served 水晶虎蝦球, which is crystal king prawn.

I have had some orgasmic prawns in the past, with Andō and VEA coming to mind as fantastic examples. Before this dinner at Wing Lei, I had not heard of crystal king prawn before, so I thought it was some kind of unique, rare, specialty prawn that was adjacent in quality to some of the best I’ve had before.

Unfortunately, this dish was also sort of a let-down. Upon doing some more research, I found out that crystal king prawn isn’t a type of prawn, but rather, a type of preparation of prawn wherein the prawn is velveted and oil-poached to form a “crystal” or “glass” translucent appearance. I am not sure if I’m just understanding this incorrectly, but I have had some pretty translucent-looking prawns and seafood before, and this prawn did not look translucent to me.

This tasted like I was just having a good regular shrimp, with nothing special about it.

The fifth course was 燜美國和牛面頰, which is braised American wagyu beef cheek.

This had comparable melt-in-your-mouth tenderness levels as the char siu. It was so soft and felt so well-marbled that I probably could’ve eaten the entire thing just by moving my tongue around my mouth without needing to chew.

I thought the sauce was a little bit generic, and the doneness level of the vegetables (or rather, the lack thereof) made for somewhat of a jarring difference with the beef cheek. However, the beef itself was so good that it made up for the sauce and vegetables and made it hard to focus on anything else.

The final savory dish of the night was 龍蝦炒飯佐魚子醬, which is Maine lobster fried rice with leek and Ossetra caviar.

This was good taste-wise, but I wish they had lightened up a little bit on the sauce in the rice in order to let the lobster and caviar shine a bit more. To clarify, I feel like the amount of sauce they used in the fried rice was completely reasonable, but keeping in mind the fact that they went a bit lighter on seasoning in some of the previous dishes they served, I think they could’ve also applied a similar philosophy to this fried rice and still had it be very good.

I’m not sure if it’s apparent in the photograph, but the amount of rice I got here was comically small. Rice is a low-cost carb that helps fill people up, so I would’ve appreciated it if they either gave more rice, or offered seconds of just the fried rice (obviously without the lobster and caviar) if the diner is still hungry.

The seventh and final course was 甜點, which just translates broadly to dessert.

The dessert was some kind of icy coconut red bean… soup? I’m not really sure. There were also pearls of what was potentially popping boba at the bottom of the cup. This was a very confusing dish because it’s almost like they tried to make shaved ice or a more gourmet version of bingsu, but their ice shaving machine broke, so they instead went to their refrigerator’s ice dispenser and set it to “grind” mode and just grabbed some ice from there.

It was very awkward eating (drinking?) this. They gave me a spoon for it, but when I tried to scoop up solid portions of this, half of it was ice. I would put the full scoop in my mouth and try to chew on the red beans, but instead, I would chomp down on the ice and make piercing crunching sounds that I’m pretty sure echoed through the entire dining room. After my face was done ing, I tried sipping it directly from the cup, but that also didn’t work, because then I missed all the red bean and pearls.

Logistically, this dessert made absolutely no sense to me. I would have loved to watch the chef consume this so I could figure out what in the world I was supposed to do with it.

After the tasting menu was over, the waitress brought out some petits fours.

This is probably the most unique and interesting presentation I’ve ever seen for petits fours. Usually they just all come out on a single plate or tray, but Wing Lei had a special spherical container that split into three smaller plates, each one holding one petit four. I was so amused by the dishware that I reassembled it after finishing, just so I could take a photograph of it.

Along with the check, the waitress also brought out a small gift to take home—pomegranate cake with coconut flakes and a sheet of chocolate on top. She said that I could either eat it after I got home, or I could save it for the following morning to have with hot coffee or tea.

The cake was unexpectedly and disappointingly extremely dry. That might have been why the waitress recommended having it with hot coffee or tea, but I literally do not have either of those in my condo, and I did not want to go out of my way to get it just to see if it made this cake taste better.

This is a view of Wing Lei’s garden. Way at the beginning of the meal, it seemed like the staff did something with the door (they presumably either locked it or unlocked it), but nobody went into it afterwards. I’m not sure if I would’ve been allowed to go in it for sightseeing if I had just asked, or if it was only accessible during special events or something.

This is what the interior dining area looked like. It looks empty in this picture because I took it very close to when they had just opened, shortly after I got seated for first service. My tasting menu took around an hour and a half to finish; by the time I was done, the restaurant wasn’t packed, but it was definitely busier.

And finally, this is the front entrance, which I photographed on my way out after dinner.

Signature tasting menu	$ 198.88
Pear Blossom	$  13.00
Sales tax (8.375%)	$  17.74
Gratuity	$  38.00
Total	$ 267.62

The table to the right shows how much I paid.

I was still hungry after finishing the tasting menu. I ate the take-home gift cake right after arriving back home, and I was still hungry. The portion sizes on this tasting menu are comically small, and things were further exacerbated by the fact that there wasn’t really anything heavy or filling in the course list. Sure, the dumpling was fried, but apart from that, everything else was light and refreshing.

Overall, I was satisfied with the taste and quality of most of the food items. However, I don’t think you can reasonably call this a full dinner unless you’ve already eaten a hearty breakfast and lunch and just want something light and quick before bed.

A high-end tasting menu in a fine dining restaurant for a base price of under US$200.00 is very appealing, and if you got the same amount of food that you usually get at full, multi-course tasting menus, then this would be an absolute slam dunk. However, because of how little they give you to eat, I think the value you get for the amount of money you spend isn’t really worth it.

As a side note, I want to point out that the service was absolutely fantastic. It was highly attentive, very classy, elegantly executed, pristinely professional, and typical of a true fine dining restaurant (as opposed to restaurants that try to market themselves as fine dining, but don’t meet the standards to do so). My glass of water was always refilled promptly, my utensils were always swapped out between dishes so there was no flavor mixing, and multiple different people came to check in on me to make sure all my needs and wants were met. If you are someone who is willing to pay an upcharge to receive world-class service like this, then sure, maybe the price is not as crazy as I’m portraying it to be. However, I’m personally someone who prefers to have just “above average” service if it means I can have a little bit more rice and a few more shrimps in exchange.

I think if you are really craving Chinese food, specifically on the Las Vegas Strip, and you want to have it in a top-tier fine dining establishment to guarantee a luxurious experience, then Wing Lei is for you. However, I think that, for most people, it is worth considering some other options instead.

Anyway, I hate monopolies and anti-competitive business practices, so I hope that Live Nation gets broken up into smaller pieces and the court issues plentiful amounts of compensatory and punitive damages. However, that’s the justice system’s responsibility, not mine. In the meantime, I joined Live Nation’s paid annual VIP membership so I can enjoy some streamlined entertainment while it lasts. I signed up through a program specific to my home city of Las Vegas in collaboration with MGM Resorts International, but my perks extend nationwide across a variety of different Live Nation venues, lounges, concerts, and other events.

One such perk is that I get to attend shows for free at the House of Blues Las Vegas inside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino (I obviously functionally “pre-paid” for it by paying the membership dues, but there are no further charges for tickets afterwards). I think this system is nice because it encourages me to go to shows that I otherwise wouldn’t attend if I had to buy tickets one by one. And thus, that is how I randomly ended up seeing ARTMS perform at the Las Vegas stop of their world tour, Art of BLUE BLOOD.

 
I’ve never really been a K-pop fan, but recently, I’ve been enjoying listening to LE SSERAFIM’s music and watching clips of their performances from their current PUREFLOW world tour. I’m also familiar with BLACKPINK and find their music to be fun, though that is probably more attributable to the fact that I think Rosé (Roseanne Park, 박채영) is one of the best singer-songwriters in the world, and she is a member of that group. Anyway, the point is, my understanding of K-pop is very limited and surface-level, so I went into this ARTMS concert a bit blind.

Historically, one of the things I have hated about the K-pop industry is how agencies treat their artists as merchandise to market and sell to the general public. I am big on personal freedoms, liberties, and expression, and I do not like the idea of a corporation building a roster of teenagers, stripping away their individual identities in lieu of group recognition, and grinding them through a gruesome and borderline-exploitative system. For the group members who are in their 20s, I guess you could say “they knew what they were getting into,” but an overwhelming majority of these girls are actual children.

I’m not trying to be righteous here and saying that I’m intentionally vetoing K-pop or anything. The reason I’m not interested in K-pop is that I naturally just don’t really find the system interesting, so it doesn’t really ever retain my attention. I, as a 34-year-old man, find nothing that draws me towards watching a bunch of 16-year-olds dancing on a stage, all of whom look nearly identical because they’re all chasing the same perceived Korean beauty standard and are getting elective cosmetic medical procedures to get closer to the subjectively idealized “perfect” face.

With all that being said, my “red flag radar” did not really go off with ARTMS, and I ended up liking their concert. Although they still visually looked very young, the energy they gave off was a lot more professional and mature. ARTMS debuted as a group only just over two years ago, but they apparently had somewhat of a storied history before that, so I’m sure that prior experience helped a lot with the establishment of the current stage of their careers. Either way, I was able to enjoy their performance because it felt like I was watching actual musicians and dancers, rather than just a bunch of kids playing on a stage.

 
The show was scheduled to begin at 7 PM, and doors opened at 6 PM. I had some errands to do earlier on in the day and was short of time, so rather than walking, I grabbed my truck and drove on some back roads from my Strip condo to the Mandalay Bay. Once I arrived and walked inside, it was shortly after 6 PM and the line to get in was literally hundreds upon hundreds of people long, snaking back and forth to the retail area on the east side of the building. Usually, people will trickle in little by little when doors open, but for some reason, Ticketmaster put the event time as the doors open time rather than the show time. Thus, I think people (reasonably) thought the show was starting at 6 PM and not 7 PM, so they arrived and lined up very early.

When my concierge team secured this ticket for me, they put me up on the mezzanine level in one of the back rows. I specifically requested to not be in the general admission standing room because I wanted to enjoy the music peacefully and while seated, away from the crowd. I’m also conscious about not occupying prime spots myself, especially if it’s for a show with a dedicated fanbase; for example, when I saw LE SSERAFIM perform at BlizzCon 2026 for the convention’s closing act, I intentionally sat one section back so their FEARNOT could get front-row seats. For this show at the House of Blues, the on-site staff moved me from Section 300 down to some glass box seats head-on and closer to the stage, presumably as a discretionary VIP membership perk. The best part about this was that I believe those seats are not for sale and are reserved to be used as handicap accommodations on a case-by-case basis; this meant that I got to have an amazing view in a very private and comfortable area while also not taking away a good seat from their OURII.

When I arrived, I went straight to the entrance, showed my membership card, and was let in right away by security without needing to wait in line. This meant I had plenty of time to get settled in before the show started. I used that time to order some food from the bar. As expected, it was quite overpriced, but I was busy working and running errands all day and hadn’t had a chance to eat yet. On top of that, I feel like ordering food at a venue, to some extent, is sort of part of the experience of attending a live event. Also, I guess one of the benefits of them letting me skip the line was that I bought their overpriced food, because if I had to wait in line with everyone else, I would’ve just left to get food elsewhere and then come back closer to 7 PM.

 
Throughout the 50ish minutes I had left before the show, I was approached by a surprising number of people who just wanted to say hi and chat. To be clear, these were not my fans who recognized me from my own work and wanted a selfie or autograph or anything; these were just regular concert-goers who seemed to want to be friendly and meet new people. What was extra endearing was that it seemed like half these people were extremely shy, but were forcing themselves to step out of their comfort zones and socialize.

A few of them even offered me “freebies,” which, in K-pop culture, are little fan-made gifts made voluntarily out of enthusiasm that are distributed among concert-goers to establish a sense of community (I ended up respectfully declining all of them and told them that I wanted to make sure they had plenty to hand out to the OURII). I don’t know if I just looked extra lonely or something, but I was quite surprised at the level of initiative they took to be nice to me and make sure I was having a positive experience.

Everyone who approached me to chat and offer gifts was a woman. The men, on the other hand… were a bit strange. To be clear, no men came up to me at any point, so it’s not like I had any weird interactions or anything. But remember how I said that I was moved to a glass box? This meant that I had a commanding, top-down view of Sections 200-208, and especially of Section 204 directly in the middle. I could see everybody‘s phone screen in Section 204, whether they were texting, scrolling social media, or filming the show. There were a lot of people recording the show, but some of the men were just zooming in extra close to certain areas of ARTMS members’ bodies, rather than recording the actual performance. I understand that there will always be people like that, and encountering creeps is one of the expected “workplace hazards” of being a performer, but it was still quite disappointing and unsettling.

 
So, with all my rambling thoughts out of the way, here is a photo recap of the show.

By the time I entered the concert hall, there were already a ton of people in the standing room. K-pop concerts usually come with their own class of VIP tickets, so I imagine these are the people who bought one-off VIP access with the agency (as opposed to getting it through Live Nation like me) and then rushed in to make sure they could get barricade access right at the front.

This is the food I ended up getting—Bluesville chicken tenders, fries, and a Diet Pepsi. The entrée was US$14.00, the beverage was $5.00, sales tax was $1.59, and I gave a $3.00 gratuity, resulting in a grand total of $23.59.

After finishing my food, I got up to throw out my trash, then snapped this angled photo of the House of Blues. The general admission standing room was filling up fast, but it seemed like there were still a decent number of unsold tickets up in the mezzanine. With that being said, to my understanding, most shows at the House of Blues don’t even open up the mezzanine level and everyone is downstairs in GA, so the fact that there were a decent number of people up in the mezzanine at all is an indication that the turnout for ARTMS was quite a bit higher than it is for a lot of the other performers who come through the House of Blues.

The show started with Act 1, during which they performed three songs: “Hyper Crush,” “BURN,” and “Blue Blood.”

Afterwards, there was a quick talking segment where the members introduced themselves and interacted with the crowd. Shown in the photo below, from left to right, are HeeJin (Jeon Hee-jin, 전희진), Kim Lip (Kim Jung-eun, 김정은), JinSoul (Jeong Jin-sol, 정진솔), and Choerry (Choi Ye-rim, 최예림).

They then wrapped up Act 1 with three additional songs: “Candy Crush,” “Verified Beauty,” and “Sparkle.”

For Act 2, each of the members performed solo and duo songs. HeeJin started with “sAvioR.”

Next was Kim Lip with “Twilight.”

HeeJin came back out with Kim Lip for a duet performance of “Be Natural.”

Afterwards, JinSoul performed “Singing in the Rain,” and Choerry performed “Eclipse.”

For their duet, JinSoul and Choerry sang “Tango.”

All four members then returned to the stage to chat with the audience a bit more.

To close Act 2, the group performed “Starlight” and “Not Friends.”

After a wardrobe change, Act 3 began with “Icarus Gang” and “Born Stunner.”

During their talking segment, I noticed a few fans in Section 202 with a sign that said “HOT GIRLS ARTMS.”

The support staff came out to help take a picture with the audience from the stage, then the members wrapped up Act 3 with performances of “Obsessed” and “Icarus.”

The Encore started with “Pixel Memory.” I thought this was a very fun song, and it was my favorite out of the entire show. I may or may not be currently listening to it on loop while I’m writing this blog post…

During the Encore phase, K-pop groups usually do a wardrobe change to tour apparel so they can promote their merchandise. At first, I was a little confused as to why the list of dates and cities was on the front of the shirt, but then they explained during their talking segment that they wanted to change things up, so they cut up and customized the shirts that day.

The Encore concluded with performances of “Virtual Angel,” “Air,” and “love4eva.”

Apparently, the fans at the barricade wanted to be sprayed with water. After Choerry asked a few times to make sure that everyone was on board, she cracked open a bottle of Fiji water and started spraying the audience.

After performing for about two hours and five minutes, the show ended with their final goodbyes.

Here is a photo of the entrance to the House of Blues, as well as the electronic billboard showing promotional material for the Art of BLUE BLOOD world tour.

I already covered most of my thoughts in the introduction, but overall, I ended up enjoying the show more than I expected. I was pleased to see that ARTMS appears to be a group of real musicians and artists, rather than just a manufactured, parasociality-farming entity like a lot of other K-pop groups.

I heard that it is rare for K-pop groups to make stops in Las Vegas due to Los Angeles being a primary tour stop hotspot for their target audience, and associated radius restrictions often extending as far as Las Vegas. However, if ARTMS ever returns to Las Vegas, or if there are other K-pop groups that come through that have a similar philosophy of focusing on true music and performing arts, then I am definitely open to seeing another show again in the future.

I’m not really that much of a basketball fan, but I have a friend who likes both watching and playing basketball. When she told me this, I started keeping an eye out for basketball-related opportunities so I could treat her to an experience she’d enjoy. Recently, I was quite pleased when I saw a chance to not only watch a season opener game against rival teams in my friend’s city of residence, but also do it from the corporate suite of Marriott, the hotel brand I always use and have the highest-tier Ambassador Elite loyalty status with.

Yesterday evening, I picked up my friend and headed over to the Crypto.com Arena. In the “know before you go” email, it said that doors open at 5:30 PM. Because this was my first time watching a sporting event at the Crypto.com Arena, I wanted to go as early as possible so I could have plenty of time to explore the suite levels, check out the main concourse if possible, and eat a hearty dinner with the all-inclusive food and beverage from the suite before the game started.

After entering the stadium, we took a very long flight of stairs up (because my friend is being health-conscious and wanted to take the stairs as exercise instead of going up the escalator) and arrived at the landing right in front of the Yaamava' Club by San Manuel. I checked in with the attendant at the front and was told that, although access to the Legacy Club was restricted and came with an extra charge, the Yaamava' Club was open to everyone.

(For those who are curious, that floating apostrophe after Yaamava' isn’t a typo and also isn’t actually an apostrophe, but rather, a phonetic character representing a glottal stop in Maarrênga’twich, which is the language spoken by the Indigenous Serrano people.)

I took “open to everyone” to mean that, not only could we enter, but we could also partake in all activities inside the Yaamava’ Club. Unfortunately, that was apparently not the case. Although there was a ton of food laid out buffet-style across the entire lounge, actually eating that food was an extra charge. Otherwise, all we were allowed to do was sightsee and order à la carte items from the bar.

I did not realize this until I had about half a plate’s worth of food already gathered and a club attendant approached me to let me know that she would need to verify that I had my wristband. I, of course, did not have a buffet wristband, and I did not want to pay the quoted ~US$80.00 for access to the buffet, so I comically just handed over my plate of food to her and said I would leave.

My friend and I were tackling different areas of the buffet to start, so even though I was stopped, she was in an area that was out of eyeshot of the attendants. On top of that, I think she was observant enough to notice that I had found myself in an unfortunate encounter, so she quietly disappeared. By the time I had managed to find her, she was already almost done eating her plate of food (which I guess is better than them just throwing it out anyway like they surely did with my plate). After she finished, we headed upstairs to our suite.

This is what the common area of the Marriott suite looked like. For some reason, I did not expect it to be nicely branded like this, but I guess it would make sense if they are signing year-long contracts for rights to the space.

I found it quite funny that the light gray fabric couch closely resembled the style of couch that they use in the newer-generation Courtyards with the light color palette (though I believe the actual Courtyard couches have more wooden accents and a thicker back).

Because we arrived so early, the stands were still mostly empty. I snapped a photo from the edge of the suite, then grabbed some food and ate my dinner at the barstool table behind the seats.

One thing I observed was just how much premium seating was available at this arena. Even just with the suites, there were three entire floors of suites, stacked one on top of the other. I guess this makes sense for Los Angeles, considering how big of a business hub it is and how many companies are headquartered in the Greater Los Angeles area.

After finishing my food, we had some extra time before the game started, so my friend and I decided to bravely venture down onto the general admission floors to see what the rest of the Crypto.com Arena was like. As expected, by that point, it was quite chaotic and congested. There were so many people that I literally forgot to take any photos except for this one of the Los Angeles Kings Hall of Fame.

After finishing a full lap around the arena, we escaped back into the VIP area and returned to the suite to watch the warm-ups.

As the final component of the pre-game routine, we rose for the United States national anthem.

Basketball induces an interesting phenomenon for me when it comes to photography.

For context, I recently attended the Calgary Flames vs. Vegas Golden Knights hockey game at T-Mobile Arena, and every time someone scored a goal, I naturally went to capture a photograph. However, that is not feasible for basketball; if I were to snap a picture every time someone scored, I would just be taking pictures non-stop the entire time.

Well, apparently nothing about basketball gameplay prompts me to take a picture. When I was organizing my photographs and deciding which ones to include in my blog, I saw the one of the national anthem, then another one of the players walking out. At first, I wondered how this was possible, because the players obviously came out before the national anthem. Then I realized that I took zero photos during the first quarter, and I am pretty sure this is of the players coming out at the beginning of the second quarter.

Partway through the second quarter, we were notified that the dessert cart had arrived at our suite. This reminded me of the often-raved-about sundae cart on United Polaris, but with way more options.

My friend got a slice of carrot cake, while I got a cookie dough blondie with a side of vanilla ice cream.

At first, the cookie dough blondie was delicious, but it was so overwhelmingly sweet that it got cloying after about four bites. My friend’s carrot cake was also very sweet, so she only finished half of it. I had the remaining half of the carrot cake paired with the vanilla ice cream, and ended up throwing out the rest of the cookie dough because of how inedibly sweet it was.

Here is a rare photograph that I took of the actual gameplay.

For the halftime performance, there were two acrobatic dancers doing tricks on a large sheet of fabric hanging from the ceiling. I found this quite impressive, as the ceiling is extremely high up, so surely, the stability on that fabric sheet was not the best. Yet, they appeared to execute all their moves with precision and finished their repertoire without any noticeable rocking or swaying.

Also during halftime was a live band performance. … There is a very funny story to go along with this one.

To put it simply, the audio quality in this arena sucked yesterday. When they were playing videos on the jumbotron prior to the start of the game, the volume was turned up way too high so it sounded like the audio was constantly peaking, and the middle and treble tones were muddy and garbled.

But at one point, I heard an extremely crisp cymbal crash. I was incredibly confused because I would not expect such a clean sound to come out of speakers that were otherwise vomiting audio as if it were a chunky fire hydrant. I just assumed that there happened to be one singular high-quality speaker off to the side somewhere that they might have been testing out or something, but I otherwise didn’t care much and didn’t put much of an effort into finding out what was going on, because it’s not like I can ask the Marriott employee about the Crypto.com Arena’s speaker system and expect a technical answer.

Well, during the halftime show, I found out where that ultra crisp cymbal sound came from. … It came from an actual real cymbal, not a speaker. There was a live band in Section 308.

With less than half a minute left until halftime was over, the stadium got bathed in red lights and the Lakers logo was projected onto the court.

Here is a random photograph of the officials conducting a review of a prior call they made.

Something that I noticed was that basketball games have a lot of timeouts. I guess I never really noticed it on television broadcasts because I imagine that’s usually when they cut to commercials, but watching it live in person, it actually gets quite funny how frequently they call timeouts from the perspective of someone like me who doesn’t know anything beyond a beginner level about basketball and doesn’t know the importance of timeouts and pacing.

The game ended with a score of 127 to 105…

… with the Los Angeles Lakers emerging victorious.

In the previous two photographs, you might notice that large portions of the stands are empty. I was surprised that people left extremely early, as if they were only interested in the outcome and not in the actual gameplay. I’m sure that some people left early because they wanted to get to the parking garage and try to beat the traffic rush out of downtown Los Angeles, but there were a lot of people who were leaving really early—some even as early as the start of the fourth quarter. I think this was especially exacerbated by the fact that the Lakers were pretty far ahead the entire game.

I was not in a rush, so I stuck around until the very end. I saw that they were doing post-game interviews on the court, but they weren’t being broadcasted on the jumbotron at all.

Then, abruptly, as if they forgot to press the button to activate this earlier, a bunch of confetti and streamers poured down from the ceiling several minutes late in celebration of the Lakers’ victory.

Overall, I had a good time. Although I wasn’t particularly captivated by or invested in the basketball gameplay, the experience in general was quite pleasant. Obviously, the Crypto.com Arena is much older than any of the sporting venues in Las Vegas, so it’s not quite as shiny and fancy as the places that host my home city events, but with its age considered, it was actually pretty decent.

Just based on surface-level self-reflection, I think I like watching in-person sports with less frequent scoring (like the baseball and hockey games I’ve been to in the past), rather than consistent-scoring games like basketball. I think I personally prefer the flow of the game better when it is fairly relaxing for a large portion of it, then there are massive surges of excitement when goals happen. In other words, I think my style aligns better when there is a baseline 10% energy level in the stadium that spikes up to 100% once in a while, rather than a persistent 30-40% energy level that doesn’t really change much throughout the entire game.

With that being said, it’s not like I disliked the gameplay either. Although I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to watch more basketball, I’d be happy to return to another basketball game if it was for a special event (like a major rivalry, a season opener, or other important/deciding game). I’m also open to checking out a basketball game in Las Vegas as well—it seems like the Las Vegas Aces are a great team, I’m curious how the energy is different in the arena between men’s vs. women’s basketball, and I imagine Las Vegas will put its iconic party twist on the game and find ways to make it more memorable and exciting than games in other cities.

 
I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve, but I have become increasingly dissatisfied with it over the past year or so. I just have problems with Chase in general with both my personal accounts and business accounts because they keep on blocking my legitimate transactions as fraudulent. However, the Chase Sapphire Reserve in particular has been becoming less ideal for me because it is morphing into a “coupon book” style of card where I have to keep track of a ton of different targeted credits in order to get maximum value from the annual fee.

I recently ran into some troubles redeeming their OpenTable credit because I went to Nobu at Caesars Palace without realizing that they had removed it as an eligible restaurant; I previously blogged about that experience in detail.

What I haven’t blogged about yet was my attempt at using their StubHub credit, wherein I purchased premium loge box seats in Section L9 at T-Mobile Arena to see the Vegas Golden Knights, but the seller instead transferred me standard lower bowl seats in Section 9. This was clearly a scammer, as these regular tickets were priced comparably to the premium tickets that they were disguised to look like.

When I immediately contacted StubHub customer service about the scam, they ignored me for a few days, and then just hours before the event was about to start, they acknowledged the problem and asked me to transfer the tickets back for replacement tickets in the proper loge box section. They then proceeded to ignore me again and never issue replacement tickets. I told their customer service department that they had utterly failed me and notified them that I expect a full refund. Instead of giving me an immediate refund, they told me that they need to conduct an investigation that may take up to five business days.

I ultimately got my money back, but obviously, not my time. StubHub is a website that I would have never imagined using if it wasn’t for the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit, and after this experience, I plan on never using them again and just skipping out on the semi-annual US$150.00 credit. I honestly don’t even understand why Chase would work with a company like StubHub where the entire platform is basically built for scalpers to have a place to resell their tickets. It absolutely degrades Chase’s reputation by even remotely associating with a brand like StubHub.

With all that being said, the one innocent party out of all of this was the Vegas Golden Knights. Although I don’t follow hockey, I am aware that the Golden Knights are a very good team that has won some championships in the past. Being a Las Vegas local, I figured I should still try to see them live at some point, considering that they are a true, home-grown Las Vegas sports team. (For those who are not aware, the Las Vegas Raiders American football team and the Las Vegas Athletics baseball team are both rescued from Oakland, California.)

After keeping a watchful eye on AXS, the official ticketing platform for the Vegas Golden Knights, I found a good opportunity to purchase a premium, all-inclusive, non-resale ticket direct from T-Mobile Arena and the Golden Knights. My total out-the-door price, including all taxes and fees, was US$552.95. That is obviously quite a lot more expensive than just a regular ticket in the lower bowl, but for me personally, I thought it was worth it to be able to be seated in a private suite, skip most lines and enter through the VIP doors, avoid all congestion from the main floors, eat unlimited food, and drink unlimited beverages.

 
The morning of the event, I received an email letting me know the day’s schedule. The first thing on the timeline was the Paramount+ Plaza opening at 5 PM. I timed my walk to T-Mobile Arena so that I would arrive shortly after 5 PM, but I am guessing I arrived too early. There was a DJ playing some music on a stage, but there was no audience in front of him. There were also a lot of people dressed up, presumably in traditional Filipino attire, but they were sort of just standing around in the middle of the plaza and occasionally posing for photos with fans.

Funny enough, instead of enjoying the festivities, it seemed like most people were already lining up at the doors waiting to get in. I didn’t want to stand around for over half an hour, and the VIP entrance at the side of the stadium had nobody in it, so I decided to go for a walk around the area until doors were scheduled to open at 5:45 PM.

When entering, I was offered some limited-quantity themed merchandise—a poster and a towel. I wasn’t interested, so I told the attendant that I would pass on mine to make sure that another person who actually wanted one would get one. However, I told him that I would take a photo of it for the memories.

Because there was basically no line in the VIP entrance, and because it led directly to an elevator lobby that took you right up to the suite level, I managed to get in extremely quickly. I headed over to the ledge to watch the general admission lines slowly begin to trickle in.

I went straight up to the suite because I wanted to eat a hearty meal before the game started.

Because I was so early, I had a nice view of the empty arena and fans slowly coming in one by one while I was eating my dinner. My seat was in the first row right up at the glass, but while eating, I grabbed a temporary spot at the bar-style table behind the seats.

The informational email said that there were special themed Filipino food items available—sisig-loaded fries, lechon burgers, lumpia, and other treats from Milkfish Bakeshop. Unfortunately, the catering inside my suite didn’t have any of the special Filipino food, so I just had to have the regular American barbecue meats, sandwiches, and vegetables. Later on in the evening, they had a whipped cream fruit dip with graham crackers that was probably one of the best desserts I have ever had at a sporting event.

At 6:30 PM, the players came out onto the ice for warm-ups.

Once warm-ups were over, the crew brought out machinery to prepare the ice for play.

Once everything was ready, there was a little theatrical performance where two knights—one representing Calgary and one representing Las Vegas—had a sword fight to claim rights to the stone. Calgary erected their flag first, but Las Vegas won in combat and dethroned Calgary’s claim.

After the show was over, a large knight helmet slowly descended from the ceiling, through which the Vegas Golden Knights came out one by one.

For the final element of the pre-show routine, two singers came out to perform the national anthems—one for Canada and one for the United States of America.

Afterwards, the official did the puck drop, and the Calgary Flames vs. Vegas Golden Knights game was underway.

I sat back to relax in my chair, but all of a sudden, the arena erupted in cheers and everyone was on their feet. In confusion, I looked up, and it seemed like the Vegas Golden Knights had already scored, only 25 seconds into the match.

The Golden Knights scored once again before the period was over, bringing the score to 2-0.

During the break between the first and second periods, they let a children’s hockey team come out and play for a little bit on the ice. I thought that was nice; I’m sure it will leave a lasting positive memory for the kids and serve as a very inspiring experience that encourages them to keep improving and aspire to be as good as the professionals someday.

Not too long into the second period, the Golden Knights scored once again. The Flames scored once too during the second period, bringing the score to 3-1 in favor of the Knights.

Once in a while, the players take a break so that the Knights Guard can come out and clear the ice of shavings and other obstructions. During this time, the arena engages the audience with interactive activities. My favorite one was when they zoomed in on a San Jose Sharks fan and labeled him as a “lost fan,” while he embraced the boos and showed his pride and loyalty to his team.

Between the second and third periods, they basically had a little rave. A DJ performed a short EDM set, and the entire arena was illuminated with colorful flashing lights.

Once the third period started, the Golden Knights kept up their momentum and kept scoring goals. I realized that it was getting boring just taking the same picture of the ice over and over again every time they scored a goal, so instead, I started photographing the crowd.

Here is the crowd to my right, cheering for the Knights’ 4th goal…

… and here is the crowd to my left, cheering for the Knights’ 5th goal.

The Knights’ 6th goal ended up being the third goal by a single player during the game. Apparently, that is called a “hat trick,” and fans threw their hats onto the ice in celebration.

At one point, there was a small scuffle between the two teams. To my understanding, most fights in professional hockey nowadays are somewhat performative, though I guess there’s nothing stopping them from breaking professionalism and having real brawls if one team does something particularly disrespectful.

The Flames scored one more goal in the third period, bringing the overall score to 6-2 in the Knights’ favor. There was obviously no celebration for the away team’s goal; instead, there was a funny clip of an angry Pikachu shown on the jumbotron to express dissatisfaction.

After the pouting Pikachu, there were no more goals, and 6-2 ended up being the final score.

After the game time ran out, a few people came out with flags reading “Victory is Ours.”

A lot of people started exiting the arena, presumably to attempt to beat the traffic rush out of the event parking garage. However, because I’m a local and was planning on walking home, I stayed until the very end and watched the entirety of the post-game celebration.

After everything was over, I slowly made my way out of the arena. I stopped by the washroom and then followed a crowd of people in hopes that they would lead me to the exit, but I eventually found myself in the parking garage instead. That was fine, though; I just took a nice photograph from an elevated vantage point of fans leaving the arena, then I took the stairs in the corner down to the ground level to walk home.

Here is a bonus picture of Filipino Heritage Knight being advertised on the Aria Resort & Casino’s electronic billboard, taken from my window at home. I assume it was displayed there because MGM Resorts International is a co-owner of T-Mobile Arena, so they have a vested interest in the success of its events.

Overall, I had a pleasant experience watching the Vegas Golden Knights live in-person for the first time, even though I don’t really follow hockey and can barely even tell what’s going on in the game because of how frequently players are rotated in and out during play.

The fact that I had an all-inclusive VIP experience obviously had a material effect on my enjoyment of the event, and because of how averse I’ve become to lines and crowds lately, I most likely would not have gone if I didn’t have this opportunity. However, if such an opportunity like this ever arises again in the future—either through the shared suite structure like this time, or through a reliable loge box ticket that isn’t from a third-party reselling platform—then I would be happy to go back and watch another Vegas Golden Knights game.

My original intention was to try it out as a gateway restaurant to the full-scale Joël Robuchon next door. Since then, I have not yet had an opportunity to go to Joël Robuchon (the high price point of it makes me want to go together with someone else for a special occasion or something, rather than showing up alone on a random weekday for a regular dinner), but in the meantime, I decided to go back to L’Atelier to try out their updated seasonal signature menu (alone on a random weekday for a regular dinner).

I had a reservation right at opening time and was the first one checked in and seated. My seat was at the far back end of the kitchen bar in a cozy corner that allowed me to have a full view of the entire restaurant, while being very out of the way so I could have maximum privacy. I didn’t make a special request for this seat or anything, though I obviously appreciated being able to eat my dinner from there.

Shortly afterwards, one of the servers brought over a basket of bread with some butter. There were three different types of bread—one that had a little bit of cheese melted on top of it, one that resembled a flaky pastry, and one that was basically a miniature baguette.

I complimented the bread a lot last time, and I’ll do it again this time: I think this simple bread basket is a huge deal when it comes to customer satisfaction.

When I go to chef’s tasting menus or omakase experiences where they use a lot of high-quality and expensive ingredients, the cost of the dinner can get extremely high. In order to make pricing manageable and marketable, some restaurants cut down on the portion sizes a lot. This means that I will walk away from my dinner still hungry.

L’Atelier solves this entirely by giving not only a generously portioned bread basket, but also offering refills (at least they did for me both times). Obviously, very well-made bread like this is going to be more expensive than regular buns and rolls, but comparatively speaking, it is still cheap to make. The amount of return on investment you get on customer happiness is astronomical compared to not having a filling carb like this at all. Throughout my meal, I ate a ton of bread, used it to dip into and finish all the leftover sauces on my dishes, and walked out of the restaurant with a blissfully bloated stomach.

I hope that L’Atelier continues doing this forever, and I also hope that other tasting menu restaurants learn from this and start offering bread if they lean towards smaller portion sizes on their dishes.

To start the meal, I was served an amuse bouche. I don’t remember exactly what all the ingredients were, but it was a three-layer creamy, custardy, foie-gras-based dish.

I was given a spoon so I could scoop deep into the shot glass and get all three layers at once per bite. This worked extra well with me nibbling on some bread in between scoops; it tasted like I had spread some extra rich, ultra-premium butter on the bread.

The first dish was la fameuse gelée de caviar de Joël Robuchon, which translates to Joël Robuchon’s famous gelée de caviar, served with cauliflower purée and Ossetra caviar. (The menu wrote it as le fameuse gelée de caviar, which, to my understanding, contains a grammatical error, and is unexpected to see from such a high-end French restaurant. … Or maybe I am just wrong and will make a fool out of myself to any French speaker reading this blog post.)

There was a generous portion of caviar layered under the gelée. I tried to scoop up some of the caviar and take a second picture, but the consistency of the purée made it so the caviar immediately got covered in white, so it made for a not-very-photogenic situation. However, taste-wise, it was great. The gelée and purée were quite rich, so the saltiness of the caviar also helped enhance the rest of the dish as well.

Next was le gyoza, which were dumplings made with foie gras, duxelles, artichoke, and ham.

This was probably my least favorite dish of the tasting menu. It tasted like upscale dumplings, but they were so salty that I couldn’t really distinguish any of the individual ingredients, and the inside registered to my taste buds as just a generic meaty and vegetable mixture. I could obviously tell that they were much better than the average dumpling, but all the other dishes of the dinner seemed to dwarf the dumplings in almost every metric for me.

With that being said, I have never seen a high-end restaurant try to make extra gourmet dumplings before, so I appreciated the novelty of it.

The third course was la Saint-Jacques, which was a seared scallop with steamed leeks and a ginger champagne emulsion.

The scallop was cooked to a perfect doneness level that perfectly balanced firmness and tenderness. The seared top of the scallop added a nice, subtle crisp to it, and the garnish on top added a fun element of depth to the texture in addition to the flavor.

However, my favorite thing about the dish was actually the ginger champagne emulsion. In cuisine, there are some ingredients that are known to be particularly and disproportionately polarizing in nature among diners; a few examples are garlic, onion, cilantro, and, of course, ginger. I love all four of those foods. I love garlic and onion so much that I sometimes just eat them raw as snacks. And for someone who eats as much authentically-prepared sushi as I do, I imagine it is a given that I eat a ton of ginger.

I saw from the ingredient list that the sauce had ginger, but I guess it didn’t actually register in my brain as to what it would be like. When I took a first taste of the scallop, I was elated at the sauce. I made sure to add generous scoops of the sauce to each bite of scallop, then used the miniature baguette to soak up and finish all the remaining sauce after I was done with the scallop.

As a bonus that was not mentioned on the course list, a zucchini dish was added in.

I think extremely good vegetable dishes are underrepresented at fine dining restaurants, so I always like when great dishes are centered around vegetables. I especially like when the vegetables are prepared in such a way that it captures all the core flavor of the vegetable, but it eliminates all of the bitter elements and the “watered down” elements of the flavor. This zucchini dish did that to my satisfaction and pleasure.

Up next was la morue charbonnière, which was caramelized black cod with daikon velouté and yuzu.

The fish was pretty straightforward and tasted good, but funny enough, it was actually the daikon radish that was the star of this dish. They had somehow managed to completely saturate this daikon with the flavor of the sauce, but still maintain a reasonable level of firmness so that it wasn’t mushy.

As the main entrée and the final savory dish of the night, I had la caille, which was a duo of quail and foie gras with chanterelles and romano beans. This came served atop a small bed of la fameuse pomme purée de Joël Robuchon, which is Joël Robuchon’s famous mashed potatoes, with a generous portion of extra mashed potatoes also served on the side in a bowl.

The portion size of the quail was a bit smaller than I had hoped. I also had the quail dish as my main entrée the last time I was at L’Atelier (though it was prepared in a different way), and for some reason, I remember it being a bit bigger back then. Regardless, the preparation was done well. I also liked the mashed potatoes because they actually tasted like mashed potatoes and not just butter purée like it does at a lot of other restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip.

There were two other options for the main entrée: l’entrecôte, which is Jack’s Creek ribeye with matsutake and salsify; or, for a US$38.00 supplement, le wagyu, which is A4 wagyu tenderloin from the Kagoshima prefecture. I opted to get the poultry dish and not the red meat in my continued efforts to reduce my saturated fat consumption in response to my hereditary predisposition to heart health issues.

At the beginning of my meal, I browsed through the list of specialty non-alcoholic cocktails. The menu indicated that these weren’t just regular mocktails, but rather, the list contained a thoughtful collection of botanicals, nutrients, and functional ingredients selected for wellness.

Out of the six different options, their Blackberry Café caught my attention the most. The ingredient list said it contained blackberry, espresso, whole egg, and cane sugar; the egg induced a silky texture and served as a natural source of protein. I saw “whole egg” and, in my head, visualized a drink that would have like an entire yolk floating at the top or something. Out of intrigue, I ordered this drink and asked the bartender to serve it to me at whatever point of the meal he thought it would fit best.

Well, apparently, this was a dessert drink, because it finally came out after all the appetizers and main courses, and right before dessert. To my disappointment, it did not have an egg yolk floating at the top, and I actually couldn’t even tell that there was an egg in it at all. However, taste-wise, it was amazing. It went literally perfectly with both desserts.

The first dessert was la figue, which was fig sorbet served with blackberry panna cotta and fig confit.

The second dessert was la mûre, made with smooth Manjari crémeux, cocoa crumble, and blackberry sorbet. (For the record, the course list wrote it as la mure, which means something different; based on the context of this dessert, I am pretty sure they meant mûre.)

Here is a view of the interior of the restaurant. As I previously mentioned, my seat was all the way in the back, so I had a commanding view of the entire rest of the restaurant.

Unfortunately, the angle of the kitchen workstations meant that I didn’t have as good of a view as I did last time of the kitchen staff preparing the dishes. However, there was a small table out of the way in the corner that was close to me, and I had a decent sight line to that counter.

This is what the front of the restaurant looks like.

Seasonal signature menu	$ 255.00
Blackberry Café	$  16.00
Sales tax (8.375%)	$  22.70
Gratuity (18%)	$  48.78
Total	$ 342.48

The table to the right shows how much I paid.

Although the meal was fantastic overall, I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have found this a little bit overpriced if it wasn’t for the bread that helped fill me up. There was obviously a great share of heavy-hitting high-end dishes like foie gras, seafood, and generous portions of caviar, but the value for money wasn’t quite at a level where I would religiously go back every single season.

Funny enough, my favorite item of this dinner was actually the Blackberry Café. Not only was it just a very delicious drink, but the way that it added even more depth to the fruit flavor profiles of the desserts was amazing. Thinking back, la mûre was actually a bit more bitter than what you’d expect from a dessert due to the chocolate flavors leaning more towards the darker side. I think it still would’ve worked well as a standalone treat, but combined with the Blackberry Café, it morphed into a very well-balanced level of sweetness.

Because L’Atelier gives print-outs of the course list, people sometimes photograph it and upload it online, so I can get a preview of what I’m about to eat during a particular season before going in. For now, my plan is to keep an eye out for that and return for another meal at L’Atelier either when they overhaul the main entrée (because I had quail twice in a row and would like to try something different that isn’t just steak) or during the summer 2027 seasonal menu, whichever comes first.

However, I recently found out that Partage rotates their food offerings regularly, and their tasting menu is completely overhauled once a month (or even more frequently in the case of special events). This is perfect for me, as I have been really enjoying tasting menus lately, and I have been going out of my way to search for novel culinary experiences. With that new knowledge about Partage’s cadence in mind, I promptly booked a reservation last week on September 30, just in time for the final day of the September 2026 tasting menu before they switch over to their October 2026 one.

While I was getting settled in, I was given an amuse-bouche. In the scramble of asking about the three different tiers of tasting menus, discussing Le Club and whether it has any useful benefits for people who don’t drink alcohol (it doesn’t), and selecting a non-alcoholic beverage from the drink menu, I actually forgot what was inside this opening bite. I do remember that it tasted good, though.

For my beverage, I ordered a drink off their non-alcoholic menu—their Passion Lavender, made from house lavender syrup, lemon, raspberry, passion fruit, and cranberry. It was a solid drink, but to me, it sort of tasted generically fruity and didn’t offer anything unique or special.

I asked the bartender about their selection of non-alcoholic beverages and whether those also rotate with the same frequency as the tasting menu. He said that they originally started with six non-alcoholic drinks, but everyone just ordered three out of those six drinks over and over again, so they narrowed the scope of their non-alcoholic beverage menu. He said that those three drinks ended up becoming staples, and they don’t really swap them out.

Partage has three different levels of tasting menus: a five-course tasting menu for US$120.00, a seven-course tasting menu for US$150.00, and a signature nine-course tasting menu for US$198.00 (and of course, the pricing is as of the day I dined; considering how much they change the contents of the menu, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pricing sometimes got tweaked as well). For my very first dinner with Partage, I opted for the nine-course signature tasting menu.

The first course was a crab trio. First was some crab meat served on top of a puffed rice and furikake crispy chip, alongside some Hokkaido-style triple-milk ice cream. Inside the cup was crab bisque flan with live Dungeness crab meat topped with croissant foam. The third of the trio was buttery king crab wrapped in crispy kadaifi.

I was confused when the server said that one of the items contained ice cream and thought he might have just meant that it was a dollop of extra creamy thick sauce, but when I bit into it, I confirmed that it was definitely actually ice cream. With that being said, the ice cream worked really well with the crab and didn’t taste like I was starting my meal with dessert.

The flan was very flavorful, and the amount of crab inside was quite generous.

For the king crab wrapped in crispy kadaifi, I tried to eat this in two bites, but when I tried to bite it in half, the kadaifi crumbled and started flying everywhere, so in panic, I just put the entire thing in my mouth. The kadaifi was extremely crispy, yet still had a sense of lightness to it such that it wasn’t crispy to the point of being sharp and cutting my mouth. The kadaifi didn’t really have any greasiness to it that you’d expect from something fried to this level of crisp, which is good, because that allowed the butter from the crab to control the primary fatty element of the flavor profile.

The second course was Scotch egg stuffed with corn purée, served atop farro risotto, wild mushrooms, and baby corn, sauced with chicken jus.

I wish I had taken a picture of this after I sliced into the egg, because it was very amusing seeing the egg cut open and seeing the corn purée ooze out as if it was a thicker and lighter-colored runny yolk. Overall, this was quite a bit too salty for me, but if I set that part aside, then I still enjoyed the dish.

The third and final appetizer course was lamb Wellington with olive tapenade, red bell pepper, baba ghanoush, and lamb Choron sauce.

As you can most likely see from the photograph, the ratio of puff pastry to meat was extremely high compared to what you’d expect from a beef Wellington. I am not sure if everyone would agree with me, but I personally thought this was fantastic. Rather than just going for a lamb variant of beef Wellington, this tasted like it was a fully reimagined bakery dish where both the pastry and the meat share the spotlight. On top of that, because lamb generally has much more intensity of flavor than beef, I think this worked out very well.

The only thing that I did not prefer about it was how salty the sauce was, though that was obviously fixed by just using less of it. For someone who doesn’t love pastries as much as I do, using more of the sauce will probably lean the dish a bit away from the pastry realm and deeper into the Wellington territory.

The fourth course was the foie gras signature dish. Foie gras always exists in some form in the signature tasting menu, but they change how they prepare it each month. This month, it was seared foie gras with reduced Muscat, caramelized grapes, and baby grapes. It also came with a crispy roll wrapped with grape leaf and topped with artichoke. Both were sauced with duck jus.

I like when dishes take an item and prepare it in multiple different ways to make a certain dish. A very common example of this is how some sushi restaurants will serve salmon bowls atop sushi rice and serve the salmon three different ways: dorsal loin sashimi, belly sashimi, and roe. This foie gras dish basically did that, but with a bunch of different kinds of grapes.

The grapes and artichoke helped balance the fattiness of the foie gras. I pretty much always prefer foie gras to be served with a generous amount of fruits and/or vegetables; I think this dish met the bare minimum of that threshold such that it tasted great, but it still maintained as much of the powerful, rich, savory kick as possible.

Course number five was the seafood dish. This month, it was premium white fish and clam chowder with celery, fennel, potato siphon, bacon, and crispy tuile.

I mentioned this at the beginning of the blog post, but I had this meal last week on the final day of September, so it’s been a little while since I ate this. In the time that has passed, I forgot what I thought about this dish. In every situation where that happens, it always means that the dish was decent, because I pretty much never forget a dish if it is remarkably good or remarkably bad. Thus, I am guessing that this was an all-around solid white fish dish, and I most likely enjoyed it, but there was nothing special about it that would prompt me to remember it in detail.

Next up was the signature course. Apparently this is the most popular dish in the entire tasting menu, and they allegedly attempted to swap this out in the past, but this was such a fan favorite that people kept asking for it back. This is the one course that stays consistent month-to-month, and is the reason a lot of regulars will get the nine-course signature tasting menu instead of the seven-course or five-course versions.

The signature course is wagyu oxtail croque-monsieur.

Believe it or not, this was my least favorite dish of the tasting menu. The first few bites were brain-bustingly delicious, but by the time I finished two of the seven layers, it was already getting very cloying. The fat content in the wagyu oxtail was insane, and although it’s amazing in smaller portions, the amount in this croque-monsieur was excessive in my opinion. I did end up finishing the entire thing, but by the time I was done, I was almost relieved that it was over.

Honestly, this actually works out perfectly well. I’m glad I was able to enjoy this signature dish one time. However, it’s not something that I would get repeatedly. This means that for future visits to Partage, rather than ordering the nine-course signature menu, I can get the seven-course menu and then supplement a foie gras add-on. That way, I can get the eight dishes that rotate each month, while saving a bit of money passing on the ninth dish, and also make my heart happier by eating less saturated fat.

Course seven was the meat course. This month, it was Black Opal wagyu beef tenderloin on one half of the plate, and a celery risotto with glazed and caramelized beef cheek bonbon on the other half. Both were sauced with some parsley-garlic coulis and beef demi-glace.

I think the tenderloin was around AUS-MEAT BMS 6-7, rather than BMS 8-9+. This meant that the marbling was top-tier, but not the highest tier. I actually prefer this over BMS 9+ (or A5 on the Japanese scale) because you can taste more of the beefiness and you can have a larger portion of the meat without feeling overwhelmed. I was also glad that this tenderloin had lower fat content after having the wagyu oxtail croque-monsieur.

This is what the inside of the celery risotto looked like. The fact that it was celery atop the beef cheek was very amusing, but the combination actually worked quite well. Even the texture matched up almost perfectly to the rice in slow-cooked risotto, so calling it celery risotto was definitely justified.

Next up was the cheese course for course number eight. This was Brillat-Savarin cheese served alongside candied baby beets and beet bread, topped with salted peanuts and drizzled with raspberry vinaigrette.

This is the best cheese I’ve ever had in my entire life.

I am usually not a fan of cheese because I think it tastes like mold, and I tend to pick up on the moldy flavor profile much more easily than other people. However, this cheese did not taste at all like any other cheese I’ve ever had. This cheese was buttery, creamy, milky, and fresh. In fact, I’d say that this Brillat-Savarin is the best dairy product I’ve ever had in general.

I spread generous portions of it on the beet bread and took bites of the candied baby beets to go along with it. That, combined with the greens and the peanuts, and it basically hit every single metric for every single possible thing you could ask for to go along with a world-class cheese dish.

I literally think I could’ve eaten three more plates of this and still wanted more.

To conclude the meal, there were two desserts. I’m not sure if the course list is entirely accurate here just based on what the dessert looked like, but this apparently had caramelized pear, pear gel, oatmeal, and cocoa crumble. Realistically, this tasted like an elevated version of a s’more.

The second dessert was a vanilla rice pudding mousse. I remember the server introducing this with the term Snickers for some reason; it didn’t really remind me of Snickers at all, but I thought this was better than the chocolate bar. It was like a light chocolate brownie, and it was quite sweet, but it wasn’t the sickly or cloying kind of sweet; instead, this was a much brighter sweetness that you usually get from crystallized sugar.

Along with the check, I was brought some petits fours to enjoy at the end of my meal. The left bite was blueberry meringue, and the right bite was a miniature tart with a custardy and nutty flavor profile.

Because I was dining alone, I took a seat at the bar so I wouldn’t be occupying a full table that could be used by a larger party. Sometimes I read the news on my phone during the downtime between dishes, but occasionally, the bartender would have some free time between making drinks to come chat for a bit at a time.

This is what the dining area looks like. I had the first reservation slot of the evening at 5:30 PM, which is right as they opened, so that’s why it looks so empty. The bartender mentioned that they plan on changing their business hours and opening half an hour earlier at 5:00 PM starting from October.

Next door to Partage is Le Club by Partage, and in between the two dining areas, there is an area where they store and sell wine. I was several minutes early for my 5:30 PM reservation and Partage hadn’t opened yet, so the hostess asked me to hold tight for a few more minutes until she could confirm that the staff was ready to start service. In the meantime, I browsed the wines set out for display (though I had no idea what anything was, considering that I do not drink alcohol).

Signature tasting menu	$ 198.00
Passion Lavender	$  12.00
Sales tax (8.375%)	$  17.59
Gratuity	$  40.00
Total	$ 267.59

The table to the right shows how much I paid.

I thought that the meal was a little bit pricey, especially considering that it didn’t have any of the iconic expensive-to-procure items (such as caviar, truffles, Japanese A5 wagyu, lobster, and other rare or supply-constrained seafood) that tend to drive up the price of some other tasting menus to around US$200.00+ due to the cost of goods being passed along to the diner. On top of that, Partage is in Chinatown out in the suburbs, and it doesn’t qualify for the expected Las Vegas Strip upcharge from high rent and high roller capitalization.

With that being said, I think it was still within reason, primarily if you account for the relatively high intricacies and complexities behind each of the dishes. I guess the fish was somewhat straightforward, but everything else looked like it involved high-effort, time-consuming preparation processes. Partage is big on wine, and they seem to have a very successful wine club, so my guess is that their primary target audience consists of older wine enthusiasts who have more spending power and don’t mind not milking maximum value per dollar on food, presumably due to being desensitized by the generally high price of alcohol.

Based on my experience during the aforementioned dinner, I am definitely going back again this month (in October) for the new menu rotation. With a few minor adjustments and optimizations to my order (specifically, getting an eight-course menu instead of the full signature one, and sticking with just house water instead of also getting a decent-but-not-amazing non-alcoholic cocktail), I think the price point will be chipped down enough that it won’t be bothersome to me. I want to support chefs who prioritize exploration, innovation, experimentation, and seasonality, and I think becoming a regular at Partage would be a great way to do that.

I’m always looking for unique, creative, innovative, and limited-edition dining opportunities. While browsing for options near me, I came across the Caesars Palace 60th Anniversary Teppan Experience at Nobu on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. This was great news because, not only would I be able to try a special teppanyaki dining experience that was concluding at the end of September (I had this meal approximately one week ago), but I also remembered off the top of my head that Nobu was a qualifying restaurant for the OpenTable credit.

After I found it, I promptly booked the reservation for the same day, and then showed up at 5 PM for the first seating. I finished my dinner, paid for my meal, then checked my Chase app to confirm that the charge had gone through properly as “Nobu” instead of just a generic “Caesars Palace food and beverage” so Chase would know to award me the credit. Somewhere along this process, I found out that, about three months ago, Chase removed Nobu from the eligible OpenTable credit restaurants. And of course, they didn’t release a proper press release about it; out of all places they could’ve picked, they announced it on reddit.

It is entirely my fault. There was an absence of the Chase Sapphire Reserve logo on the OpenTable booking page for Nobu, but it didn’t register in my head that it was gone when I opened it to make the booking. Chase also gave a two-month grace period after they removed Nobu (in addition to a bunch of other restaurants), and my dinner fell outside of even that grace period. And of course, Chase and OpenTable reserve the right to change qualifying restaurants at any point, and it is up to me to check for participating status at the time of booking.

Regardless, it is obviously disappointing going into a meal expecting a US$150.00 discount and then finding out that you have to pay full price. Luckily for me, I dine at restaurants a lot, so it won’t be an issue for me to go to another restaurant—this time, one that is actually on the list of participating restaurants—to spend the credit that I wasn’t able to use at Nobu.

 
With all that being said, I’m still glad I got the opportunity to try this special tasting menu. Was it a high-value experience for the money? No, not really, as you will see later on. But was it still a good experience? Yes.

What made the experience extra good was the fact that apparently I was the only one who booked a reservation for that particular time slot on that particular day. When I showed up at the restaurant, I was a little bit early and they hadn’t opened yet, so I waited about ten minutes in the lobby; once they were ready, the hostess walked me to the teppan table, and I noticed that only one of the spots was set with a linen napkin and chopsticks. When I pointed with a confused look and asked if I was the only one, she said “yes.”

Sadly, the positioning of the teppan grill was very unfortunate. Because Nobu is inside Caesars Palace, it is directly connected to the hotel. The far back walls of Nobu are not solid, and instead have diamond-shaped spaces that show a view out into the hall. Because of the casino, cigarette smoking is legal inside Caesars Palace. This meant that I would occasionally get repulsive waves of cigarette smoke odor coming into the restaurant, and being so close to the back wall, my table was the first one hit. This alone is enough for me to never return to Nobu for another teppan meal again.

The meal started with a collection of sashimi: kanpachi jalapeño, ama ebi, and salmon nashi pear with sliced truffle.

The greater amberjack was solid, but there was nothing particularly special about it. The sweet shrimp was incredibly delicious, but the shrimp head that came with it was fairly average. The salmon was my favorite bite; the pear sauce and truffle to go along with the salmon made for an amazing combination.

Whenever I go to a restaurant, I like to browse their non-alcoholic mocktail menu to see if there’s anything interesting that I might want to try. At Nobu, the drink that stuck out to me was their Shiso Peachy, made from white peach Calpico, aloe juice, simple syrup, lemon, and Fever-Tree soda, topped with a shiso leaf.

This actually ended up being one of the best drinks I’ve ever had. It was a very unique flavor profile that I’ve never had before. It had a smooth and subtle fruitiness to it that was sweet, but not too sweet. I think shiso leaves can be tricky to use because their flavor can very easily pierce through and overwhelm other flavors, but the fact that this leaf was just gently placed on top made it so that it only had a gentle contribution to the overall flavor profile to the extent that it matched, but did not overpower, the rest of the drink.

Next up was the nigiri. The three pieces included toro with miso and caviar, Japanese snapper with shiso and lemon, and snow crab tiradito. This was also accompanied by atsuyaki tamago.

All of this was pretty good, but I particularly liked the snow crab nigiri. The crunchy garnish on top gave it a fun texture and added a very slight kick of mild spice.

After the first two courses, the chef came out and prepared the teppan grill.

He seemed to have no reaction whatsoever to the fact that I was the only one dining that round. I asked him how often this happens, and he said that it has actually been occurring a lot more frequently lately. I guess the fact that I showed up on a weekday and early on in the evening (as opposed to the weekend during the late evening dinner rush) also contributed to it as well.

After doing a little juggling show with his cooking tools to show his agility, the chef started cooking my meal.

First off the grill was Hokkaido scallop with charred negi goma, sesame chili oil, and shiitake mushrooms.

The quality of the scallop was great, and the accompanying sauce was fantastic. I often don’t prefer over-garnished scallop because it’s easy to overpower the milder flavor of scallop. However, this sauce had the perfect intensity such that it got right up to the limit of flavor while just barely not overwhelming the scallop. The mushrooms also worked great with this, as they were charred and almost crispy on the outside, while being soft and tender on the inside.

Next up was Glacier 51 Chilean sea bass with yuzu kosho chimichurri and broccolini.

This was an interesting take on chimichurri. I often see chimichurri paired with steak and other red meats, but this was infused with a more citrus-heavy twist, and it complemented the fish well. It had an element of spiciness to it, but it was more of a “throbbing” kind of satisfying spicy aftertaste, rather than it being a front-loaded spiciness that is often associated with spicy foods.

While I was enjoying the sea bass, the chef started working on my next dish.

For the next course, the chef cooked some lobster tail and served it atop some rocoto sweet chili garlic miso and micro arugula.

I like lobster, so I appreciated this dish. I suspect that the sauce here was quite special, but I think the highly innovative and unique nature of the sauces of the previous two dishes made it so that, in comparison, this rocoto sweet chili garlic miso didn’t stand out as much as it otherwise would have had I eaten this as a separate entrée.

With back-to-back-to-back seafood dishes done, it was time for some beef.

The chef’s next plate was Miyazaki A5 wagyu drizzled with soy mirin reduction served with pickled daikon and a dollop of karashi.

This was delicious wagyu beef and matched the quality I would expect from a cut graded A5. However, the thing that stood out most to me about this was actually the spicy mustard. Wagyu is often served with flaky salt and pepper so that the beef flavor is enhanced, but there is nothing diluting or altering the flavor profile. Even though I’ve eaten quite a lot of A5 wagyu at this point in my life, I think this is actually the first time that I ever had it served with karashi.

For my first bite, I accidentally put way too much of it on the beef, so all I ended up tasting was the spicy mustard. However, for subsequent bites, I used the spicy mustard far more conservatively, and with a small dot of it on the wagyu, it made it much better. The best way for me to describe it was as if the wagyu was served with a more unique variant of wasabi.

While I was enjoying the wagyu, the chef started preparing a bunch of different ingredients for my final savory course before dessert.

After I finished all the wagyu, a waiter came over to take away my empty plate and drop off a bowl of miso soup.

I sipped the soup to go along with my bowl of Nobu fried rice, made from lobster, wagyu, scallop, black garlic, and crispy allium.

Up until this point, I was noticing how small the portion size of each dish was, and the limited number of overall courses offered in the tasting menu. Although this fried rice didn’t single-handedly “fix” the problem, the fact that the chef prepared a large, heaping bowl of rice did definitely help lift me out of continued hunger and into the “fine” territory.

For his final act of the meal, the chef seared a crust on some banana slices and then lit them ablaze to flambé them.

When I saw him do that, I told him an abridged version of the story of my friend’s botched pineapple rum flambé upside-down cake at STRIPSTEAK and let him know that I’m glad he knows how to properly use the technique. He seemed to have found the anecdote quite amusing and funny.

The bananas were brought back to the kitchen, where the pastry chefs finished preparing the dessert. This is the final product that came out: banana kinako with nougatine, walnut, and Maldon salt, served with a scoop of milk gelato. According to the description on the menu, this is inspired by Bananas Foster.

This was great. It was fun combining all the individual elements into cohesive bites, and I particularly enjoyed the nuttiness and how it complemented the baseline banana flavor.

This is a picture of the front of the restaurant near the hostess’ podium.

I didn’t have an opportunity to capture any other photos inside Nobu because of how far back I was seated. The teppan grill tables are tucked away in a little alcove, so it’s fantastic for privacy, but not the best if you want to take pictures. The restaurant also filled up pretty quickly after I arrived, so I didn’t want to go for a walk taking pictures when a ton of diners were already getting settled in for their meals.

Instead, here is a photo of the statues and fountain near the hotel registration desk at Caesars Palace. I passed through here on my way out of the building after finishing dinner.

Teppan Menu	$ 266.00
Shiso Peachy	$  15.00
Sales tax (8.375%)	$  23.53
Gratuity	$  50.00
Total	$ 354.53

The table to the right shows how much I paid.

As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the meal and I enjoyed the experience. However, I think this price is quite steep for what you get.

Nobu is a very reputable brand. After this dinner, I do think that Nobu is deserving of praise and acclaim. However, with that being said, I think Nobu is overrated. I think the way that people perceive Nobu as some kind of ultra high-end luxury brand is a bit overblown for what you actually get. Again, to be clear, the food was fantastic. However, you can also get food of comparably high quality at other high-end, authentic Japanese restaurants for substantially less money and larger portion sizes.

Obviously, restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip charge quite a bit more than regular restaurants out in the suburbs, or compared to restaurants in other cities that aren’t designed to attract high rollers. However, even with that in mind, I think the US$266 price point is still too high. In my opinion, I think the “Nobu mark-up” here is somewhere around the US$60-70 range, i.e., if this exact experience did not have the Nobu name attached to it and was instead given to you at some generic “Mr. & Mrs. Lee’s Teppanyaki” restaurant on the Strip, it would probably be priced closer to a flat US$200.

So, my final verdict of whether or not I would recommend it? It depends. If you’re taking a gold digger out on a date, or if you yourself are a gold digger and want to milk good value from your date, and you care about the prestige of dining at Nobu, then I think this is a great place not only to stroke your ego, but also to actually eat very good food. However, if you’re just a normal person and you want to dine at a restaurant that will give you more bang for your buck, then I think it makes sense to pass on Nobu (at least the one at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip).

I don’t have my laptop with me at the moment, but I found some paper and a pen with a graphic of a cat on it. I am currently at an event, but I still have a few hours to spare. I’ve generally been good at avoiding social media, but it’s gotten worse lately because I followed a bunch of musicians lately, and now the algorithm is feeding me very captivating clips from their concerts. To avoid staring at my phone for the next few hours, I decided to write.

In my head, it’s already off to a tragic start. I pride myself in using precise language with a broad vocabulary, but I feel like I’ve already been redundant and suboptimal in my word choice. I earned a higher education degree in the early 2010s, so I’m not new to handwriting. It’s just that I generally don’t have the first draft of a handwritten note scanned and uploaded online for the public to see, like I plan on doing with this. And yes, I actually write like this, and this is actually really my normal handwriting style. Don’t worry, it will gradually get sloppier and more human soon once my hand starts cramping in a few pages.

People often come to me for advice. My self perception of my own wisdom seems to be significantly less than how others see me. When people ask me questions, my most frequent responses are “I don’t know,” “I’m not sure,” and “I’m not the best person to ask this.” However, over time, I realized that my willingness to disclose my gaps in knowledge is having the opposite of the intended effect, and is making people come to me even more. When I decline to comment on a matter because I feel too unqualified to do so, many people follow up by asking if I can give some general advice instead. More specifically, they ask for advice about how a young person can get to where I am today.

The advice I usually give in that situation is, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” No matter how much time you spend researching, studying, and preparing for something, you cannot prepare for something that you don’t even know you have to prepare for because you don’t know that it even exists. Unknown variables like this exist everywhere, and it is important that your confidence never turns into blindness or arrogance. This is still advice I regularly give, especially to younger people who seem to have gotten their initial taste of success already and may be prone to risk-taking.

However, as I slowly get older, one additional piece of advice has stuck in my head due to my increasing age. I am turning 35 years old in under 4 months, which graduates me from the 25-34 “early career” category and puts me in the 35-44 “established career” category. According to the demographic information provided to me by social media platforms, over half my followers fall within the 25-34 age group. This means that I am older than most of the people who interact with me online. If that does indeed apply to you, then my advice for you is:

You are richer than me.

I don’t envy people with money; I envy people with time. I don’t admire people with money; I admire people who extracted maximum value from their time. Time is the most valuable currency and life’s most important resource. I am almost never regretful of anything, but when I do end up regretting something, it involves wasting or misusing my time. I remember reading somewhere that the average life expectancy of a Korean man is 80 years, 70 of which is lived healthy and without disability or illness. It is quite jarring to me that I am about half dead already.

An increasing number of things in the world are fighting for your time and attention. Guard it like your life depends on it, because it does. Before giving your time to someone or something, think about whether it’s worth it. Ask yourself if it will bring you closer to the goals you want to achieve with your life. This doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to have fun. Taking time off to have fun is an important part of boosting morale and productivity. But, think deeply—is what you’re doing actually fun, or are you just going through the motions of having fun without actually having fun?

I get worried about people who live a majority of their lives online. The internet is a huge time sink. Algorithms are designed to make you forget how valuable your time is and trick you into wasting it on things that don’t matter.  Online content portrays itself as fun—and it sometimes is—but it is often just a disguise. Having fun is supposed to recharge you and put you in the right mindset to continue pursuing your goals. But, a lot of people feel exhausted or stressed after consuming social media content. Think carefully about whether it is truly deserving of your most important resource.

Watch out, because time leaks. You can’t pause it in between tasks, or when you get distracted for just a few minutes at a time while you check your phone several times a day. People who take control over these leaks and consolidate it into meaningful usage can launch much further ahead towards their goals. It usually takes a couple thousand hours to reach professional competency at something. Someone who recaptures two hours of misdirected time can accumulate it daily for under three years and have it be enough to be qualified to do an entire new job.

A lot of people are surprised when they find out how much I pack into a single day’s worth of time, and they get even more surprised when I say I look at more successful people and feel like I’m still not doing enough with my time. But the older I get, the more urgent it feels that I not only spend my remaining time wisely, but also continue refining my life goals so that my time can be put towards something more important in general.

People like to say that there’s plenty of time, either to decide what to do or to get back on track. I know being anxious or stressed about wasting time can be counterproductive, because then some people just fixate on and panic about all the time being wasted. However, I think at least a little bit of pressure is healthy for most people. So, I’ll be that guy and say it: time is running out.

However, no matter how amazing Bazaar Meat was, there is still one minor problem for me: their dishes are heavy on red meat. Unfortunately, I still need to be heart-health conscious and minimize the amount of saturated fat I eat; although my cholesterol levels have become far more manageable now, I’m still at high risk for hereditary heart conditions. Thus, I like to indulge in red meats sparingly, and where possible, I shift my diet towards focusing more on fish, poultry, and vegetables.

There is some great news though. Bazaar Meat is known for their delicious and high-quality steaks that have incredible marbling and impeccable preparation, but they also have a sister restaurant that upholds the same reputation but focuses on seafood instead. That obviously is a great match for me, so late last week, I dined at Bazaar Mar by José Andrés, located inside The Shops at Crystals on the Las Vegas Strip.

Bazaar Mar also had two different tasting menus: The Bazaar Mar Experience for US$175.00 per person, with an option to add a discovery wine pairing for a supplemental US$150.00 per person; and José’s Creative Experience for US$235.00 per person, with an option to add the ultimate wine pairing for a supplemental US$220.00 per person. For this meal, I decided to try out The Bazaar Mar Experience, with an intent to come back and try José’s Creative Experience on a later day if I have a good experience.

I’m glad I don’t drink alcohol, because it’s wild to me that some sips of wine to go along with your meal can end up being almost just as expensive as the entire tasting menu itself. Instead, I opted to get two non-alcoholic beverages. One of them was given to me complimentary because Bazaar Mar is running a special promotion right now where locals get one free drink with a purchase (though I’m not sure whether any Nevada ID would qualify, or if the ID has to have an address listed that is within the Las Vegas Valley). The second one is one I selected and paid for.

 
The first course, called “a bite or two to welcome you,” came with three items. The first was oyster ceviche with leche de tigre and corn nuts.

I love the flavor of oyster so I usually don’t add anything to it that could potentially diminish the strength of the flavor of the oyster. If a restaurant serves oysters with a set of sauces, I usually don’t use any of the sauces and end up eating the oysters plain (or with a very small amount of lemon juice) because I like oysters that much. Sometimes, if there is some sea salt available and the oysters are extra good, I will salt the oysters to further enhance the flavor of them.

With that in mind, I think it’s reasonable to assume that I don’t like oysters that have a lot of preparation behind them. However, this oyster ceviche was actually quite good. The sauce added a bit of sourness to the overall flavor profile, but the level of sourness stopped at the perfect level such that it didn’t interfere with the taste of the oyster. I like nutty flavors, so the corn nuts not only added a different angle to the flavor profile, but also added a fun textural contrast to the bite.

Along with the appetizers, my complimentary drink came out: the Emerald Coin, made with Seedlip Grove 42 non-alcoholic spirit, honeydew, lemongrass, lime, and celery. If I wasn’t a local, this would’ve cost US$16.00.

This is a flavor profile that I don’t have often, so I enjoyed the unique aspect of it. It was a nice, balanced mixture of sweet fruitiness and earthy vegetable…ness. At first, I thought the portion size was a bit small, but I think the shape of the glass was deceptive; I sipped this throughout my first few courses, and it was enough to last me past when my second drink came out.

The next bite was José’s Taco with jamón Ibérico de bellota, Ossetra caviar, nori, and gold leaf.

I’m usually not the biggest fan of jamón Ibérico because the flavor can be a bit basic and overpowering, but this jamón was great. It was relatively mild, yet still had a rich, meaty flavor. The seaweed was relatively mild as well, which allowed the taste of the caviar to come through prominently.

The third bite was a river trout cone made from Smoke in Chimneys trout shaped into a flower, with preserved Meyer lemon and dill.

The presentation was nice, but even if it wasn’t formed into the shape of a flower, it would’ve still been fantastic. The trout had a strong but very clean and crisp fish flavor. When the server brought this out, she recommended that it be eaten in two bites at once, i.e., bite the top off, then put the rest in your mouth and chew together. The sauce at the bottom of the cone was very complementary to the fish, so I’m glad she pointed that out.

The next course was called “a trip around the world, The Bazaar world.” This started with monkfish ssam containing fried monkfish atop gem lettuce, sauced with black garlic romesco and aioli, and topped with lemon foam.

The fried monkfish tasted very clean. It felt like it was grilled and seared monkfish, but with a light and refreshing layer of breading on it, and injected with all the positives of the fried flavoring without any of the greasiness. I couldn’t really pinpoint the specific flavors of the sauces, which I found to be a good thing; they meshed well with the fish flavor and didn’t overwhelm it at all.

Next was kueh pai ti, described on the course list as Singapore’s favorite street food. Inside, it contained ama ebi shrimp, peanuts, and chili sauce.

This was my favorite bite of the dinner. It was an incredible explosion of flavor containing basically all of my favorite elements—seafood, nuttiness, and spiciness. I feel like I literally could’ve had ten more of these and still wanted more.

Afterwards came Hokkaido sea scallop crudo with tomatillo and seeds aguachile, green grapes, and jalapeño-cucumber oil.

This was my second favorite dish of the night. The quality of the scallop was incredible. Scallops are usually on the milder side with flavor profile, but these tasted quite strong. The sweetness of the grapes worked really well with the scallop. The oil was absolutely packed with flavor, and it seems like they dried the other ingredients well enough that the oil really stuck to everything and enhanced every bite. The oil was so delicious that I grabbed a spoon and literally scooped and drank it like soup after I was done with the solids.

In preparation for the next course, my second drink came out: Mediterranean milk punch made from lemon, lavender, mint, green cardamom, orange blossom, and grenadine. The liquid itself was clarified from Greek yogurt and milk. This was not included in the tasting menu and cost an extra US$18.00.

If I’m paying extra for a drink at a restaurant, I want to make sure that it’s something I can’t get at a grocery store somewhere. This Mediterranean milk punch far exceeded my expectations in that regard, because it was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. It had a very subtle and smooth underlying dairy base, but the top notes were a dynamic mixture of a lot of fun, fruity flavors.

The third course was called “from ocean depths to garden heights.” This started with their Po Boy José! made with fried baby squid and aioli packed inside a steamed brioche bun, served with a pepper to nibble on on the side.

I think people underestimate how difficult it can be to make the perfect sandwich. I think our expectations of sandwiches are reasonably pretty low, and if it just generally tastes like meat, vegetables, and bread, then most people are satisfied. However, if you really consider the flavor profile of a sandwich, you will often realize that it is very easy to get a proper balance of flavors of all the different elements of the sandwich.

This po boy nailed the balance perfectly. Not only was the squid nice and flavorful, but the way it was fried made it so you could detect the fried flavor, but it was still a seafood-forward flavor profile overall. I think the bread was intentionally slightly underseasoned, which ended up being great because it allowed it to supplement the squid flavor rather than making the sandwich too bready. Even the pepper was perfect—it was a relatively mild pepper, but it still had enough sourness to it to help cut through the creaminess of the sauce.

Next up was a tomato salad made with heirloom tomatoes inside ginger lime syrup and topped with citrus soy glaze.

I think these might have been some of the best tomatoes I’ve ever had in my entire life. The tomatoes themselves were high quality and had a natural sweetness with no sourness. However, the sauce was world-class. I think the soy glaze had a very similar flavor profile to soy sauce, but without any of the excessive saltiness, so it tasted like these tomatoes were marinated in and then brushed with a thickened version of just the flavor of soy sauce, with no salt, and diluted perfectly to the point where its intensity matched the intensity of the tomatoes exactly.

As a side note, this was a comically large portion size of tomatoes, and I think it is sized for two people to share. That was obviously no problem, though; these were delicious enough that I happily ate the entire thing.

And finally, the last dish before the main entrées was a Maine lobster croquette with lobster and shrimp fritters, served with a side of saffron aioli.

This was decent, but probably the most underwhelming dish of the tasting menu. Compared to the other dishes tasting extra clean, crisp, refreshing, and well-balanced, this croquette was far more “normal” and on the heavier side.

It was now time for course number four: “where the sea meets the land.”

At the beginning of my meal, my waitress asked which dish I wanted for the main course, with my options being chicken or salmon. Of course, I picked the salmon. However, after reviewing the course list again, I realized that I was supposed to get both the main entrées, rather than needing to pick just one. The next time she came around, I brought it up and asked her about it. She said that the tasting menu only comes with both if you are dining as a group of two, and solo diners only get to pick one or the other.

I asked her if it was possible for me to get half portions of each. She said she would go to the back and ask the chef; after several minutes, she returned to my table and said that the chef said they’re willing to let me have both, and that wouldn’t be a problem.

The first entrée was pollo al ajillo made with Josper-roasted chicken and ajillo sauce.

When this came out, I was confused. This was such a large portion of chicken that I suspected they might not have given me a half-portion of it like I had mentioned to the waitress. Subsequently, I was concerned that, not only did they not give me half-portions of both, but they ended up just giving me a full portion of chicken and skipping the salmon.

I think I had a very unlucky first bite of this chicken, because the edge piece of the pre-cut section was quite dry. However, that first bite was definitely a fluke. When I ate more of the chicken, the next part was immediately far more tender and delicious. This ended up being a bit too salty for my preference, though I’m not sure if the saltiness came from the chicken brine or the sauce.

Shortly afterwards, to my surprise, the salmon came out too—this was Ōra King salmon grilled over wood fire and served with salmon roe atop Meyer lemon sauce.

Now I was even more confused, because this also seemed like a full portion of salmon. When I had a chance, I asked my waitress whether the kitchen forgot that I was alone and inadvertently gave me full portions instead of half portions. She then responded that the kitchen doesn’t actually do half portions of anything, so they made me full portions of both. I thanked them and offered to pay an upcharge for receiving a second full-size main entrée for free, but she said it was fine and that the kitchen said it was all good.

This is the best salmon I’ve ever had in my entire life. It was cooked pretty rare, so I was able to get both the raw salmon and cooked salmon flavor combined in each bite. The salmon in general was absolutely packed with flavor. The fish tasted almost as if it was denser, as in, there was more salmon flesh and fat packed into each cubic centimeter. The skin was also incredible and added a fun crisp to each bite. To top it all off, chewing into the salmon roe coated my tongue in its oozy goodness so I had a rich flavor to keep my tongue occupied in between bites.

The side dish to go along with the chicken and salmon was Josper-roasted carrots with olive oil labneh yogurt, carrot gastrique, and sumac.

The carrots were cooked to perfection. They were both soft and firm at the same time, and had a rich broiled texture on the inside with a more charred exterior. For lack of a better way to describe it, there was also a facet of the carrots that made me think that they were very slightly dehydrated as to intensify the carrot’s sweeter element.

I think the sauce was a little bit too strong and overpowering, but that was obviously easily solved by just using less of it when I dipped the carrots into it.

To conclude the meal, the fifth course, serving as the dessert, was named “seaside treat, lime and sweet.” It consisted of their key lime beach, made from key lime mousse, graham cracker crumble, and lime air.

It’s as if this dessert was custom-modified to fit my personal preferences. I like key lime pie, but funny enough, my favorite part of it is the crust. This key lime beach, as you can tell by the name, had a far more generous portion of the graham cracker crust (in crumbled form) than what you’d find in a regular slice of key lime pie.

The fact that it had the lime foam was also fun. When eaten alone, it was very light and mild; when combined with bites of the key lime mousse and graham cracker crumble, it was unnoticeable. Regardless, it obviously made the presentation much better, and it made sure the tasting menu ended on a positive, artistic note.

Here are some photos of the interior of the restaurant.

It’s empty because I booked my reservation for 5 PM when they first opened, and I took the pictures while I was waiting for my first course to arrive. My meal took right around two hours, and as I progressed through the tasting menu, it got fairly busy to the point where it felt pretty packed by the time I finished my dessert.

For full transparency’s sake, I also got an additional 10% discount on my meal. However, that discount had nothing to do with this restaurant in particular, the discount has a set of external requirements in order to qualify for it that are unrelated to me as an individual, and there was no favoritism or subjectivity surrounding the discount. I did not receive a special invitation to this restaurant, and the staff did not know I was coming beyond a reservation I put in through their public booking portal a few hours before I showed up.

With that discount, which was separate from the complimentary beverage I received for being a local, my subtotal came to US$173.70. Sales tax at 8.375% came to US$14.55. I added a gratuity of US$60.00, which brought the grand total for the meal to US$248.25. For the record, I am still fairly staunchly against tipping culture and generally only tip around 15%, but I felt the almost 35% tip this time around was well deserved due to the fact that I seemed to not only have gotten far more food than I was supposed to, but also got it at a great price.

It’s probably needless to say at this point based on my detailed descriptions of how much I liked the food and why, but I highly recommend Bazaar Mar. This restaurant is probably a seafood enthusiast’s dream come true with the variety of different kinds of seafood they serve, and the innovative and unique nature in which they prepare the dishes. I would consider my meal an oceanic success, and I’m looking forward to going back to try José’s Creative Experience in the future.